There’s been rather a lot of media attention paid to the events in Coburg on Saturday. Below are a few scattered thoughts and links to some reportage. I may add some more in the next few days …

• Most of the reportage has been poor, and frequently incorrect. Thus, in terms of chronology, several months ago Moreland City councillor Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) organised a rally for May 28 titled ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’. It was to take place outside Coburg Library and then to march to Bridges Reserve for a picnic. Weeks later, members of the Melton and Bendigo-based ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) decided to organise a counter-rally at Bridges Reserve: the endpoint of the proposed march. They were soon joined by their comrades in the neo-Nazi grouplet ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF).
• Bolton’s event proposed to gather support to ‘Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities – Treaty now’, to ‘Let the refugees in – Close Manus and Nauru’ and to say ‘No to Islamophobia’. The TBC (and UPF & Co.) intended to ‘Stop the Far Left!’, to ‘Support the Australian Government[‘]s Use of the Offshore Detention Centers That Protect Our Nation’ and to stop the Islamisation of Coburg (and presumably, by extension, Melbourne and Bendigo).
• The organisation by neo-Nazis, fascists and racists (ie, ‘ordinary mums and dads’) of a rally in a suburb like Coburg — one which also intended to shutdown a ‘left’ event — naturally drew the attention of local anti-fascists.

• On the day, the police strategy was to facilitate both rallies and to keep participants from clashing. In practice, this meant attempting to confine ‘anti-racists’ to the Coburg Mall and ‘patriots’ inside Bridges Reserve. Media report that something like 500 police were mobilised/available for the occasion.
• The ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’ rally proceeded but organisers did not join with others who marched from the Library up Sydney Road to Bell Street. On Bell Street, outside the Reserve, the ‘patriots’ assembled on the road but were prevented from marching up it, and then down Sydney Road, by two lines of police and a crowd of anti-fascists.
• Something in the order of 50-100 people rallied with the TBC and the UPF. A large number of these rally-goers were from Bendigo and Melton and travelled from Bendigo on a bus specially hired for the occasion.

• The last time the UPF organised a rally in Melbourne was about six months ago, in late November. See : #UnitedPatriotsFront fails to rise in #Melbourne. Again., November 28, 2015. Around 40 or so attended. This suggests that there’s been little if any growth in the UPF’s ability to attract a crowd, at least in Melbourne. The UPF has, however, established a small base in Bendigo and a smaller one in Perth. NB. As elsewhere in the country, the UPF has attracted the support of neo-Nazis in Perth. Several of them, belonging to neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Aryan Nations’, were recently arrested and charged with murder; the Aryans in Perth played host to the UPF when they travelled to that city to attend the Reclaim Australia rally last year. See : Murder shines spotlight on Australia’s white supremacist subculture, news.com.au, May 23, 2016.
• The UPF’s first rally in Richmond was rather similar to this, their latest public outing. Like the May 28, 2016 rally, the May 31, 2015 rally was directed at a socialist councillor (Stephen Jolly). See : #UnitedPatriotsFront sent packing in Richmond, May 31, 2015. It failed to unseat him, triggered a bizarre UPF letter-writing campaign to the Governor-General — His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) — demanding that he remove Jolly from office, and witnessed clashes as the UPF (with police assistance) tried and failed to occupy the Town Hall steps.
• A small number of neo-Nazis known to have attended previous ‘patriotic’ rallies were out and about on Saturday. These apparently (according to ex-UPF member Neil Erikson) included Mark Hootsen (Nationalist Alternative), Joey Edwards and Dan Newman (Combat 18). Toby Cook (Party for Freedom, Sydney) waved a silly sign and wore Golden Dawn merch, while former UPF lackey Linden Watson also made an appearance. Oddly, UPF supporter Warren Broadhead waved an Israeli flag, while a neo-Nazi (name unknown), who’s previously served as a minder to young bonehead James Lawrence, was also present. Visible neo-Nazi markings were relatively rare, though three or four men sported Nazi Werwolf insignia.

• Speaking of flags, the UPF left a number of theirs behind.

• Despite some media reportage to the contrary, the anti-fascist action on Saturday witnessed the participation of a relatively high proportion of locals.
• Melbourne Antifascist Info provides the following account of events:

The United Patriots Front (stealing the thunder of the True Blue Crew, who were happy to ride their big brothers’ coat tails) assembled a fascist gathering of about 150 in Bridges Reserve Coburg around 10am (some in Nazi regalia), making to march down and disrupt Moreland Says No to Racism. A small contingent of antifascists comprising a large nunber of locals managed to head them off on Bell Street and disrupt their progress. In the ensuing mayhem, notorious methgoblin Zane Chapman and True Blue Crew leader Kane Miller were arrested and OC sprayed respectively. Both ended the day in tears (see photos).

Police officers on the scene found the love in the air too much to handle, and had a bit of a weep themselves. Officers deployed OC foam repeatedly against antifascists and fascists, and many unlucky Nazis went home with untreated chemical burns. At least four non-hostile photojournalists were directly capsicum sprayed by officers, one in the lens of his camera.

For the next couple hours, the UPF and TBC failed spectacularly to mobilise on multiple occasions, and were moved in a kettle back and forth until they unceremoniously gave up. Their every move, and indeed their tail-between-the-legs extraction, was carefully facilitated and managed by hundreds of police, without whose indulgence they wouldn’t have been able to leave the carpark, but even with whose concerted support they were still unable to march. Meanwhile, Moreland Says No to Racism’s rally proceeded unopposed and was a roaring success, moving freely through the streets and celebrating Coburg’s unity and diversity in the face of racist fearmongering. The TBC’s stated aim, of making the No to Racism rally unviable, was not only not achieved, it didn’t even barely get off the ground. Fascist symbols were seized, chucked in the bin and used as doormats by enthusiastic Coburgers.

On a sadder note, the Melbourne Street Medics Collective was left to fend for themselves as Nazis charged their triage area, beat up casualties and Medics and unbelievably attacked the ambulance and paramedics attempting to evacuate a severely injured protestor. As comrades, we are sorry that the Medics were not better protected and we implore all activists to place these invaluable people highest on their list of solidarity priorities.

Mad props to all involved, you’ll always lose in Coburg.

In which context: both fascists and police have targeted MSMC previously, most notoriously at the joint Reclaim Australia/UPF rally in Melbourne on July 18. Future events will obviously require a more concerted effort on the part of anti-fascists to protect the MSMC from attack. By the same token, legal monitoring and support for the arrested as well as the injured will likely be a priority.

• In general, given the circumstances, the day went about as well as could be expected. Importantly, and despite fascist, police and media agitation in favour of its cancellation, the ‘Moreland Says NO to Racism’ rally was neither stopped nor attacked. Further, the TBC, UPF & Co were prevented from marching through Coburg. This was only as the result of the determined action of the hundreds who gathered on Bell Street to stop it.
• Media report that 7 (seven) people were arrested on the day: ‘Police said two people were arrested for riotous behaviour, one for assaulting police and one for hindering police. Another was arrested for robbery. Two people were arrested before the rally for weapons offences.’ It seems likely that these will not be the only people to be arrested and charged in connection to Saturday’s events.
• Capsicum foam has again been confirmed as a now-routine part of policing ‘public order’ situations.
• Predictably, media and police have seized on the fact that some people wore masks to the protests. Apart from anything else, there are actually laws on the books which police can utilise if they feel the need. As lawyer Rob Stary has pointed out, s49c of the Summary Offences Act makes ‘Being disguised with unlawful intent’ a crime. Otherwise, see : Masks up (Andy Fleming, Overland, December 15, 2015); Why Masks? (Melbourne Antifascists, September 8, 2015); Why Wear Masks? (Nerve Magazine, May 10, 2016).

Bonus!

MSMC STATEMENT ‪#‎Coburg‬, May 28 – “Solidarity is not just a word”

Many of our comrades have provided thorough and well-articulated accounts of what transpired and how events unfolded in Coburg on Saturday, when due to being left without the support of the bulk of people who were initially on Bell Street, our medics and the casualties they were attending ended up behind police lines, open to not one but two attacks by the racists and fascists. For those wanting a detailed chronology and report, we would direct you to Slackbastard’s rundown as well as this timeline outlined by Melbourne Antifascist Info.

As many of our supporters will be aware, there has been much coverage and debate already about the unfortunate situation that the Melbourne Street Medic Collective (MSMC) found itself in, when our triage space on Bell Street was left inadequately protected and was subsequently charged and attacked by members of the far-right. It is true that both casualties and those of us who support the injured were attacked. To this we would like to point out the nauseating cowardice of those members of the True Blue Crew, United Patriots Front and the affiliated crew of motley thugs and neo-Nazis who seized the ‘opportunity’ to attack those most vulnerable on Saturday and ask all readers to consider this as part of a mounting case of evidence that the far right were doing anything but merely defending the supposed instigation of violence from antifa, despite their bleating insistence to that effect.

At the heart of Street Medicine is an appreciation of the systems of domination & oppression that make us and our communities sick. Capitalism and its symptoms are indeed destroying our communities and laying waste to the health of generations. This could not have been clearer on Saturday and provided a timely reminder for us all to reject the scapegoats thrust forward by politicians and abetted by the mainstream media – refugees, queers, feminists and Muslims are truly distractions put forward to divert us from the true oppression of capitalism and its ability to isolate, disenfranchise and divide us.

So while we see the need to oppose fascist bullying and intimidation – especially in thriving multicultural centres like Coburg – the need to dismantle a system that turns disenfranchised working-class people against one another must be replaced.

Further, MSMC would like to take a moment to reflect on suggestions made that the matters of hate-speech and fascism are best handled by the influence of police. On Saturday Victoria Police, while exercising extreme force with an apparent lack of discrimination or mercy, showed no consideration to the injured and hurt. To this we call shame on Victoria Police and assert that we unequivocally cannot surrender responsibility for the defence and protection of our communities to their authority.

In contrast MSMC stands in solidarity with the brave paramedics who attended and were besieged and intimidated in their ambulance by aforementioned fascists, neo-Nazis and thugs. These individuals acted courageously in the face of utterly unreasonable circumstances.

Specifically, there are a number of things that we strongly encourage. We would encourage a respectful and open dialogue prior to actions. We acknowledge the differences in many groups’ political analysis and tactics, and on this basis we encourage more thorough, widespread and representative communication-sharing between groups and individuals during the course of rallies, in the spirit of comradely collaboration and to enable individuals and groups to make informed decisions about their actions and movements. We would encourage a respect for some baseline levels of safety, such as the needs of the Street Medics not being dismissed when we communicate these at actions – requesting extra people to provide support, or safety in numbers, and things as simple as helping to form privacy circles. We encourage people to buddy up, and not leave their friends and individual members of their groups and organisations behind if they require assistance with getting home due to OC spray exposure – particularly with roaming groups of racists and fascists around. We also encourage people at actions to be aware of those around them, and that for example things such as OC spray are imprecise weapons that are designed to spread to a radius of people. We have absolutely no desire to police people’s behaviour, but rather to provide support for our communities and to promote sustainable activism that works against burnout and trauma from police violence.

Finally, whilst we are still gathering our thoughts on all that transpired, we do look forward to the opportunity to engage in a continuing dialogue with various organisers and groups around solidarity and adequate support of all factions at future demonstrations. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better and we’re keen to now look towards an immediate future where mutual aid, care and respect get rapidly much better. Solidarity is action, not just a word.

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2018 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.

11 Responses to Coburg 1 /// Fascists 0; Or: The neo-Nazi rally that brought anti-fascists to the streets of Coburg

In the video you posted on your facebook page showing the true blue crew, you can see Glenn Anderson/Androvski in the background, sans chin pubes. Check the video at about -1.10 to -1.20, when Blah Cockhead is crapping on, in the background you will see an obese man with a hood over his beanie. I am sure that is Androvski.

On other matters, once again the capitalist press misrepresented what happened on the day. It was a great victory, as we prevented the Nazis from marching and enabled the anti racist rally to go ahead through the streets of Coburg without being attacked by Nazi scum.

(a) First the autonomous Antifa, who marched off from the Sydney Rd end of the Coburg Mall (they were never down at the library end) at about 10:45. They met the fash as they were coming out of Bridges Reserve onto Bell St. The Antifa were badly outnumbered and were having a heavy time of it before reinforcements arrived. Nevertheless, it was their courage that ensured that the battle was fought on Bell St rather than on Sydney Rd.

(b) SAlt, who were kettled in the mall once the Antifa left, but who eventually broke through by marching out the back way, through the Socialist Alliance rally. The timing of this and the manner in which it was done has caused controversy. The SAlties evened up the score and put the fash on the defensive.

(c) A large group of Lebanese Muslim youth, who arrived after the SAlties. Once they were on hand, the fash proceeded to get themselves a proper pasting.

2. The preparedness of Socialist Alternative to treat this action seriously, rather than as another political demonstration at which they shout good slogans and sell some papers, is to be welcomed. When the Fascists hit the streets, the time for political discussion is suspended. What counts is self defence. We can debate politics afterwards.

3. The arrival of the Lebanese Muslim youth into the struggle is an event of great significance. Until now, the elders of the various Muslim communities in Melbourne have been primarily concerned to police their young and prevent them doing anything that could court controversy. The willingness of Muslim youth to defend their municipality against Fascists changes the equation considerably.

4. The reason the medics were attacked by the fash is that, after the initial clashes, the cops drove the Antifa back about 50 metres, leaving the first aid point behind enemy lines. If the cops had instead decided to separate the two sides by sending the fash back into Bridges Reserve, the medics and their patients would have been safe. Despite their rhetoric of even-handedness, the cops favour the fash time after time – with predictable results. Intelligent observers should draw some lessons from that.

Why we went ahead with the Coburg rally: organiser Sue Bolton
The Age
June 1, 2016

When a group of local Moreland residents and I decided in early February to organise a local community rally against racism, we didn’t expect the media storm the event generated.

We were motivated by an alarming increase in racism, the federal government’s brutal treatment of refugees, its plans to close several hundred Aboriginal communities and vilification of Muslim and African communities, in particular.

The three key issues were: stopping the forced closure of Aboriginal communities, letting the refugees in and closing the camps on Manus Island and Nauru, and saying “no” to Islamophobia.

More than 60 organisations endorsed the Moreland Says No to Racism rally, planned to be a peaceful community rally.

In May, we became aware that a far-right racist group, True Blue Crew, and the openly pro-Nazi United Patriots Front had organised an event via Facebook at the park where we intended to conclude our rally.

As a result, we decided to relocate the end point of our rally to avoid any confrontation and ensure the safety of the diverse rally participants. We also chose to avoid direct confrontation because at least one of our speakers had been subjected to racist attacks on the train in Coburg, and we knew others had also experienced racist attacks.

Closer to the event, the police advised us to cancel our rally. We had concerns that cancelling the rally would allow a pro-Nazi organisation a dangerous level of influence over public debate and our democratic right to protest. Further, our publicity had been circulating for months and it was always possible that people would still attend. Instead we worked closely with police, meeting three times to ensure a peaceful rally.

Over the past 12 months, the far right has targeted refugee rallies, Aboriginal rallies and gay community rallies. It is clear they are attempting to shut down public rallies about progressive causes.

If the organisers of these events decide to cancel on the basis of threats from the far right, we will lose something very fundamental: our democratic right to protest.

Calling off the rally would have given a green light to the UPF to shut down whatever rally or public discussion it wanted.

Given the UPF’s white supremacist views and tendency to violence, it would be dangerous to allow them to control what public debate is allowed and what is not. And, if our rally had been called off, the white supremacist group would likely still have rallied.

We were determined not cave in to intimidation. We began organising community marshals, including from sympathetic unions, to ensure participants were safe and able to express their views without fear. We also decided to march away from where the far right were located, so that participants wouldn’t get drawn into any clashes.

The Moreland Says No To Racism rally of 400 to 500 people was peaceful. The far right rally, with members from across Victoria, was not: the racists were fighting with other people who were anti-racist but who were not involved in our rally. Yet we were blamed for clashes. We were blamed for shopkeepers closing up for the day. We were blamed for the riotous behaviour of the racists.

We reject the assertion that, as Moreland is already culturally diverse, there was no need to hold such a rally and, by doing so, we b[r]ought violence into the local area.

The violence that day came from the racists. But it also comes each and every day from the institutional racism of bipartisan cruelty towards refugees and the dehumanisation of Muslims.

There have been a number of racist attacks in Moreland and most of them are not being reported to the police. Muslim women usually bear the brunt of the racist attacks. Moreland residents have the same right to express their views against racist policies collectively that all other citizens of Melbourne have.

[Sue Bolton is a Moreland councillor and one of the organisers of Moreland Says No to Racism rally.]

Below is an account of May 28 written by a White nationalist for the ‘United Nationalists of Australia’ blog.

A FOOTLOOSE NATIONALIST AT A PATRIOT BUNDLE OR, RIDING THE TIGER IN COBURG (WHILE WATCHING OTHERS FALL OFF AND BE EATEN)
James Hillman

Well gentle readers, what a day we had over in Sydney Road and surrounds, that part of Coburg being known to local wags as ”The Gaza Strip”!

Melbourne turned on one of her winter specials for this entree to the marching season, a biting sou’ wester, with frequent showers and heavily overcast.

This Nationalist reporter, ever a man of the people, made his train on time for once and took a seat on the connecting 513 bus; the most Plebian mode of transport known to man.

Arriving at the Sydney Road stop I alighted upon the verge of Bridges Reserve and noted a small clutch of Patriots who had arrived early. Seeing no familiar faces I set off for the Coburg Library, the rally point claimed for the day by Moreland city councillor Sue Bolton and her coalition of Left, Green and reedy Social Justice groups.

Now why, you may ask, was a Nationalist bypassing the “Patriotic” rally and attending the opposing formation?

Simply put, as a local to the Northern Suburbs I set out to further my knowledge of the state of play in Moreland’s alternative political scene. Frankly, the collection of blow-ins recruited by the “True Blue Crew” would hardly have had anything useful to relate on that score.

My scepticism of the Patriot cause in general is well documented on this very blog, but I don’t propose to slander any particular group or person in my report. They shall make their own case and put forward their impression of the day’s events.

Certain things occurred in their line that was visible to all; these I shall report since they go directly to the heart of the Nationalist position and are a fact of the matter. But I will reassert the Patriot’s prerogative to disagree with my interpretation or else step up and explain themselves.

The Mall was abuzz with activity as 10:30 rolled around. What was billed as a display of community spirit and unity seemed anything but, as there were in effect two rallies building simultaneously, at either end of the precinct.

The grandmotherly figure of Sue Bolton could be seen mingling with her group of concerned clucky citizens, Greenies and Refugee advocates at the carpark end. Meanwhile ANTIFA, Socialist Alternative, and their fellow travellers were assembling by Sydney Road.

Socialist Alternative began their stereotypical chants at this time, a nonstop medley of tired slogans and catchphrases in a refrain of mantras more powerful than any sleeping tablet in their drowsy effect. This tiresome display did not let-up for the entirety of the pre-march activity.

I was actually pleased to see the Spartacists appear at this point and engaged with them on the subject of union leadership and the futile path the CFMEU has taken in defending themselves in the “bosses’ courts”.

At around eleven, an awful leftist bard took to the makeshift stage, introduced as an “award winning songwriter” by Ms Bolton, but given his twanging out-of-tune Fender and warbling vocals one wonders if those awards were bestowed by the deaf community.

Anyhow, his massacre of Kev Carmody’s From Little Things, Big Things Grow was interrupted by the exodus from the mall, in full, aggravating chorus of the Trotskyite and Black Bloc contingent.

It was clear they intended to make their own way to confront the “Fash” and leave the old fogeys behind, so I quickly attached myself to their formation, and set off down Bell Street.

By this time the militant element of the socialist rally had grown considerably. As the group drew up to the police lines just east of the Sydney Rd intersection, they numbered in the hundreds; bolstered by a contingent of young Arab men numbering perhaps a few dozen.

Being a man of middle-age I was not able to keep up with the lead elements of the march. A small scuffle appeared to break out between riot police and anarchists as the latter ran pell-mell into the officers. OC foam was deployed with several people affected.

As the anarchist street medics took charge of their blinded, sputtering colleagues, the Patriots, some eighty in number as I perceived them, surged onto the street. The Left groups were then pushed back by a line of mounted police, leaving a distance of some twenty to thirty metres, and a double wall of coppers between the opposing sides.

A steady rain began to fall, chants began to rise from both sides, and an anarchist heaved what appeared to be a nectarine over the heads of the cordon. But both groups remained static. After perhaps fifteen minutes, the Patriots moved from their position astride both lanes of Bell Street back into the park, save for a small contingent who mounted the porch of the nearby primary school to unfurl an Australian, and a stinking Israeli flag.

This dismal display was given the hooting it deserved. The crowd then erupted in applause as a posse of ANTIFA rounded the corner bearing a clutch of UPF banners, stolen, they said, from a Patriot’s own vehicle.

These flags were summarily desecrated, torn apart, made into bandannas and attempts to burn them were only thwarted by the now driving rain.

The merriment continued further until advance ANTIFA scouts relayed some order via their weird coded street language of whistles and the mob took off at a dead run in the direction of the old Pentridge Prison complex.

Nowadays the “Bluestone University” is a high end café and residential precinct, yet it still remains a warren of laneways and blind corners, as I puffed along behind the leftist youths I was apprehensive about what I’d find ahead.

Some fracas occurred behind one of the cafés, out of my view. A crowd of ANTIFA and their supporting Arab protestors (that’s right, the ANTIFA have aligned with the Lebanese ED) had armed themselves with makeshift weapons. As I arrived on the scene they were retreating ahead of a squad of riot police. Some were showing mild abrasions and the effects of OC spray.

A short standoff occurred in Urquhart Street. The leftists began to turn on the police to bait and scuffle with them, but this was quickly defused by the Socialist crowd marshals who informed their charges that they had taken the day, and the crowd were to assemble for a march back down Sydney Road to the town hall.

As I set off with this appalling rabble, the young Arabs began sounding off in their own language with shouts of “Allah Akbar” accompanied by their baritone laughter, which could be heard as we made our way back down into the heart of Coburg.

The lead elements however made another inexplicable detour, so at a dead run once again the crowd surged into the carpark behind the local leisure centre; the alternative entrance to Bridges Reserve.

Once again the ANTIFA applied the “crash or crash through” modus operandi on the police line with predictable results, thus I spent the last minutes of the rally as part of a human shield around three scumbags who I should have let go blind as they were treated for the effects of OC foam. Funny how things work out.

So by way of conclusion, I ask myself what I learned about the world today. My overall impression was that Coburg does indeed have enthusiastic and well-practised cadres from many notionally leftist tendencies who can work effectively together.

As our young friends in the Nationalist milieu noted on a recent podcast there may well be more fertile and open minds on the Left side of Australian alternative politics than the right. I certainly can’t help coming to that conclusion at the end of today’s fun. The crowd was 90% White, showed for the most part good humour and good judgement and when all is said and done they stick to their guns and their message is consistent, the minimum prerequisite for political activists.

And as for the depressing showing by the Patriots, their use of Israeli flag as a primary banner tells the Nationalist all he needs to know and this Nationalist now feels sure that their movement has run its course. The UPF in particular should seriously consider whether cultivating a group such as the “True Blue Crew” is a good idea in the long term. If the TBC are to become a bogan praetorian guard, I for one would not trust them with my safety given their performances on Bell Street.

It is true that all pro-active political groups at some point will attract a more or less criminal subculture whose minds are too shallow for the proper political training but who are tolerated because they’re good in a ruck. The patriots must appreciate however that even in revolutionary movements such men have a use by date and their skill set is really only suited to specific phases of struggle far down the timeline from the present state of affairs. The True Blue Crew moreover had nailed their colours to the dunghill of Civic Patriotism even before today’s outing, the Israeli flag coupled with their dopey Right Wing Anti Fascism was merely the icing on a rather shitty cake.

In truth these hard fighting men appear to the Nationalist as no better than those they opposed today. No boys, you are not political activists, you are mere participants in a masked pantomime played by burly toughs; strong on sentiment maybe but informed by the same set of rotten lies! At any rate as this farcical coalition of “right wingers” achieved nothing on Bell St today. Sue Bolton is no doubt cuddling up to her “special someone” tonight as she pats the old dear’s head and praises her on a job well done.

ANTIFA are at their revels, getting drunk and coupling in degenerate acts too horrible to contemplate, the world turns and as I stood in the rain waiting with them the plebs on the 513 bus stop knew only that their way home was delayed by an hour or so due to “ugly scenes”.

The only real upside for the Nationalists is that coming months will reveal who from that side is willing to throw in their lot with a true coalition of genuine Australian Nationalists, who is willing to “Ride the Tiger” and who is merely its latest meal.

You are a Cultural Marxist Muslim cocksucker that is a traitor to Australia and fucking pathetic, you just fucking watch when Donald Trump becomes President this year. He will unite all white countries against the Muslim Arab disease. He will bring an army into Australia then one day into Coburg to kill every single fucking sand monkey Muslim terrorist living there, and their babies’ heads will split open. The pregnant ones will be kicked by real Australians until they have miscarriages if they refuse to go back to Lebanon/Middle East. All Muslims aka terrorists will face justice soon.

1. “Cultural Marxist” is a term which describes a group of philosophers from the Frankfurt School. It has been taken up as a term of abuse on the far Right and, in recent years, has moved into more mainstream Right circles. The far Right uses it as a term of abuse because of its usefulness as a code for two of their pet hates: Communists & Jews. The Frankfurt School, you see, was composed of Jewish intellectuals associated with the Communist Party and who left Germany, migrating to the United States, when Hitler came to power. They are a useful scapegoat for the US far Right to identify as the enemy within.

2. Quite frequently, the far Right attributes views to the Frankfurt School that they not only didn’t have, but which are almost the precise opposite to what they were saying. One of the good things about abusing obscure dead philosophers is that most people won’t spot when you’re lying about them. My suggestion is that, if you want to pick a dead philosopher on whom to pour abuse, try Parmenides. I’ve always hated him. Though he’s just about totally forgotten, he was deeply influential on later philosophers and therefore did immeasurable damage to Western philosophy. It’s a great pity Heraclitus wasn’t more influential.

3. If “Cultural Marxist” is code for “Jew”, then it can’t go together with “Muslim”.

4. Assuming that Silly was addressing Andy as the “cocksucker”, it is curious that this epithet immediately follows “Muslim”. While there are considerably more gay Muslims than the Islamic religious establishment would like us to believe, it should be noted that the Muslims that the far Right considers most representative of that religion impose severe punishments on LGBTIQ people. When the far Right accuses someone of being a gay Muslim, therefore, it undermines the very stereotypes of Muslims it is trying to entrench.

“…you just fucking watch when Donald Trump becomes President this year. He will unite all white countries against the Muslim Arab disease. He will bring an army into Australia then one day into Coburg to kill every single fucking sand monkey Muslim terrorist living there, and their babies’ heads will split open. The pregnant ones will be kicked by real Australians until they have miscarriages if they refuse to go back to Lebanon/Middle East”

“The military tells me, you’d need 20,000 or 30,000 troops [to defeat ISIS]…But I wouldn’t ever put up 20,000 or 30,000…I don’t want to send — we’ve had — look, we’ve spent $2 trillion at least in Iraq. We’re spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East. You know what we are now? We’re further back than we were 15 years ago. We are in such bad shape. The Middle East is a disaster for us. And in the meantime our country is crumbling.” – Donald Trump on CNN, March 21, 2016.

Trump is an isolationist. He has publicly stated that recent US foreign military adventures (Vietnam, Iraq, Libya etc.) have all been mistakes. His first instinct will be to put up a wall around himself, not unite to help the poor persecuted ‘whites’ of Coburg. Oh well.

Also…

Most Arabs in Australia are Christian (mostly Copts and Maronite Catholics).

Most Muslims in Australia (58.1%) do not have Arab or North African ancestry (2011 census).

ablokeimet writes that: “The Frankfurt School, you see, was composed of Jewish intellectuals associated with the Communist Party and who left Germany, migrating to the United States, when Hitler came to power. They are a useful scapegoat for the US far Right to identify as the enemy within.”

While the Frankfurt School consisted primarily of Jewish radical leftists of varying stripes, there is only a very limited degree to which they could be said to be “associated with the Communist Party”. I suppose ‘associated’ is a vaguer term than ‘member’, but even so it seems a questionable assertion. To varying degrees and with varying timelines, they all developed critiques of the Soviet Union and of Communist Party versions of marxism, or else discreetly ignored the really-existing CPs, and not from any obvious illusions or secret commitments. One could argue that Walter Benjamin was ‘associated’ at one point and in a quite specific context, but it hardly defines his position or practice more broadly, and certainly not that of the participants of the School in general.

The far right uses the term ‘cultural marxism’ to give a red-baiting quality to a conspiratorial version of the history of Frankfurt School influence on academia and social theory and such, and I am not expert enough in the details of their ravings to know whether they are making claims about KPD association, or indeed post-war German Communist connections, but I don’t remember that being a point in the one example of such inventions I bothered to read.

The influence of Marx on the works of the members of the (first generation of the) Frankfurt School is not difficult to spot, and there doesn’t seem to be anything very useful or desirable about denying it (or viewing it as some kind of terrible accusation). On the chance that people are saying that the members of the Frankfurt School were associated with the KPD or post-war German Communist Party, it would seem worthwhile to not reproduce the assertion.